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Address 

of 

Hon. Legh IL Watts 

of Portsmouth, Virginia 



Before the Sidney Lanier Chapter 

of the Daughters of the Confederacy 

at Macon, Ga., January 19 th 1908 

Lee's Birthday 



Published by Request 



PRESS 

THE ANDERSON PRINTING CO. 

MACON, GA. 



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c/lddress of Hon* Legh R. Watts 

of Portsmouth, Virginia. 



'■Before the Sidney Lanier Chapter of the Daughters of 
the Confederacy, at Macon, Georgia, January 19th, 1 908 



Mr. Chairman : 

I thank you, Colonel Harris, for your eloquent but all too 
complimentary words of introduction, and tender grateful ac- 
knowledgments to you, ladies of Sydney Lanier Chapter, United 
Daughters of the Confederacy; to you, veterans of R. A. Smith 
Camp and Macon Camp ; to you, young ladies of Wesleyan Female 
College ; to you, citizen-soldiers ; and to you, ladies and gentle- 
men, for this cordial reception and most generous welcome. 
While most gratifying to me personally, I can but regard it as 
an evidence of the sincere attachment and kinship which unites 
in the closest bonds of sisterhood, the Empire State of the South 
and the Old Dominion — it is Georgia's greeting to Virginia, and 
speaking for Virginia, again I thank you. 

A great man has been defined as, "One who chooses the right 
with the most invincible resolution ; who resists the sorest temp- 
tations from within and without ; who bears the heaviest burdens 
cheerfully ; who is calmest in storms and most fearless under 
menace and frowns; whose reliance on truth, on virtue, on God, 
is most unfaltering." 

In all periods and in all countries, the observance of certain 
days has been decreed by the church or the State in commemora- 
tion of some epoch-making event in its history, or as the birth- 
day of one who wrought mightily and achieved great and bene- 
ficial results for the cause he represented or the times in which 
he lived. 

December 25th is celebrated throughout the Christian world, 
not only by those who profess and call themselves Christians, but 
by the people everywhere, as the anniversary of that ever blessed 




morning, when the Angel of the Lord, surrounded by a multitude 
of the Heavenly Hosts, all praising God, said to the watching 
and wondering shepherds, tending their flocks in the fields of 
Bethlehem : "Fear not ; for behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this 
day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.*' 

July 4th is observed in the United States, and by its citizens 
in other lands, as the birthday of the Republic. The Continental 
Congress, on that day, 1776, renounced all allegiance to the Brit- 
ish crown, and solemnly declared the United Colonies free and 
independent States. By that declaration, one of the most im- 
portant and far reaching in all history, the thirteen colonies, be- 
fore dependent upon England, were transformed into thirteen 
republics, or, as Mr. Calhoun expressed it. ''The Declaration of 
Independence changed the provinces, subject to Great Britain, 
to States, subject to nobody." 

After the war for independence, these thirteen sovereigns 
united in forming a Federal Union, and adopted a constitution, 
under which "all powers not delegated to the United States, nor 
prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, 
or to the people." 

Under this constitution and the several amendments thereto, 
there is no loss of separate and independent autonomy to the 
States, "for the preservation of the States and the maintenance 
of their government is as much within the design and care of the 
constitution as the preservation of the Union and, maintenance 
of the National Government." 

Today, January 19th, is, by the statute of Georgia, and the 
law of many of her sister States of the South, a general holiday. 
One year and a century ago was born at Stratford, in the County 
of Westmoreland, in the State of Virginia, Robert Edward Lee ; 
seventy-five years before, February 22d (N. S.) 1732, at Pope's 
Creek, in the same county, and only a few miles distant, was 
born George Washington ; thus, within a century, the little 
County of Westmoreland, in the northern neck of Virginia, with 
an area of only 170 square miles, gave to Virginia and the world, 
the two foremost men of all the ages. 

It is well to note — and a curious coincidence — how the lives 
of these two illustrious men ran parallel. 

Washington resigned his commission in the British Army in 



sity 
JUL 1 



I754» y et the year following, he served as aid on the staff of 
General Braddock, and saved, by his valor and judgment, the 
remnants of the English Army, after its disastrous defeat on the 
banks of the Monongehela. Lee held a commission in the United 
States Army, and won fame and promotion in the war with 
Mexico. 

When the American colonies determined to resist the en- 
forcement of the unjust legislation of the British Parliament, 
Washington was among the first to tender his services and was 
made Commander-in-Chief of the armies raised for their defense. 
When, in 1861, Virginia determined to resist the invasion of her 
sister States of the South and withdrew from the Federal Union, 
Lee resigned his commission in the army and was at once made 
Commander-in-Chief, of the Virginia forces. 

Washington led the infant colonies to victory and achieved 
the independence of his country ; Lee, "worn out by his own vic- 
tories," was at last "forced to yield to overwhelming numbers 
and resources." Washington, the victor, was "first in war, first 
in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Lee, the 
vanquished, was the idol of his army and is today one of the best 
beloved of Americans. 

Washington, during the Revolution, and after its close, was 
denounced as a rebel — he now commands and receives the re- 
spectful homage of all true Englishmen. Lee, during and imme- 
diately after the Civil War, was called a traitor, but his every 
action has been vindicated and his former enemies of the North 
unite with the people of the South in doing honor to his memory. 

In fact, Washington and Lee are inseparably associated in 
our country's history ; — 

"I tell you Lee shall ride 

With that great 'rebel' down the years, 
Twin rebels, side by side. 
***** * 

These two shall ride immortal, 

And shall ride abreast of Time, 
Shall light up stately history, 

And blaze in epic rhyme. 
Both patriots, both Virginians true, 

Both rebels, both sublime." 



I come today in response to your generous invitation to unite 
in these memorial services and perform as best I may the part 
assigned, realizing most fully and regretting most sincerely, my 
inability to meet either your just expectations or the require- 
ments of the occasion. 

I come not to eulogize the "Great Virginian" — Robert Ed- 
ward Lee has passed above and beyond human encomium — he is 
safely and forever with the immortals ; as was said by Alexander 
Hamilton of George Washington, so it may be said of R. E. Lee, 
"The voice of praise would in vain endeavor to exalt a name un- 
rivalled in true glory." 

In the past, many tributes have been paid his memory, but I 
recall none more eloquent or more truthful than that of Senator 
Hill, in his address to the Southern Historical Society, at At- 
lanta, February 18th, 1874. To this nothing need be added — 
from it, nothing can be truthfully taken away — it will live in our 
language as a classic. 

Pardon a digression. I would fail to respond to the prompt- 
ings of my own heart, if, here, in the State he served so faith- 
fully and ably, in this presence, surrounded by the people whom 
he loved and who so loved him, I omitted to pay a Virginian's 
tribute to the memory of the greatest Southern statesman of the 
reconstruction period — Benjamin Harvey Hill, the close friend 
and associate of Davis and Lee. 

In all these years, perhaps the most momentous in the history 
of the South, he stood the boldest, the bravest and the ablest of 
her defenders. 

Recall with me, the day in January, 1876, the beginning of 
the centennial year, when James G. Blaine, the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and an aspirant for the Presidency, 
in order to secure a personal and political advantage, appealed to 
the lowest passions and prejudices of his section, in a cruel attack 
upon the character and humanity of the venerable and venerated 
ex-President of the Confederate States and the men and women 
who followed him through those weary years of suffering, sacri- 
fice and starvation. It was Hill's to reply, and his answer was 
worthy alike the cause he championed, the man and the people 
for whom he spoke, and the best traditions of the American Con- 
gress. Towering like Agamenon, king of men, above his fellows, 
his eye flashing with righteous indignation, with an eloquence 



never perhaps surpassed and an array of facts unanswerable, he 
not only refuted every charge, but utterly crushed, with the over- 
whelming power of eternal truth, the so-called "Plumed Knight," 
and won for himself an immortality of fame. He spoke for 
peace and reconciliation — that brothers of a common family, "at 
home in the father's house," should love one another. 

I recall another scene, when Hill, in the Senate of the United 
States, speaking from the mountain ranges of purer politics and 
higher statesmanship, declared : "Fidelity to trust is the highest 
public duty," and sought to recall a recreant Senator to his duty. 

The tribute paid this great man's memory by President Davis 
was well deserved. He said : "In victory or defeat, he was ever 
the same — brave, courageous, true. He was Hill the faithful." 

Nor do I come to speak of Robert E. Lee's character as a 
man, or his achievements as a soldier; these, for half a century, 
have been considered and discussed by the ablest critics, civil and 
military, in this country and in Europe, by friends and former 
foes, and a conclusion reached with singular unanimity; from no 
quarter — North or South — at home or abroad — comes a discord- 
ant note. Mr. James Ford Rhodes, a Northern writer, in his 
admirable and impartial history of the United States, referring 
to the reasons inducing Lee's resignation from the Federal Army, 
writes : 

"Lee, now fiffy-four years old, his face exhibiting the ruddy 
glow of health and his head without a gray hair, was physically 
and morally a splendid example of manhood. Able to trace his 
lineage far back in the mother country, the best blood of Virginia 
flowed in his veins. The founder of the Virginia family, who 
emigrated in the time of Charles I., was a cavalier in sentiment ; 
'Light Horse Harry' of the Revolution, was the father of Robert 
E. Lee. Drawing from a knightly race all their virtues, he had 
inherited none of their vices. Honest, sincere, simple, magnani- 
mous, forbearing, refined, courteous, yet dignified and proud, 
never lacking self-command, he was in all respects a true man. 
Graduating from West Point, his life had been exclusively that 
of a soldier, yet he had none of the soldier's bad habits. He used 
neither liquor nor tobacco, indulged rarely in a social glass of 
wine, and cared nothing for the pleasures of the table. 

"Northern men may regret that Lee did not see his duty in 
the same light as did two other Virginians, Scott and Thomas, 



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but censure's voice upon the action of such a noble soul is hushed. 
A careful survey of his character and life must lead the student 
of men and affairs to see that the course he took was, from his 
point of view and judged by his inexorable and pure conscience, 
the path of duty to which a high sense of honor called him. 

" 'Duty is the sublimest word in our language,' he wrote his 
son. Sincerely religious, Providence to him was a verity, and it 
may be truly said he walked with God." 

Of Lee, the soldier, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the 
United States, in his life of Thomas H. Benton, written in 1886, 
says: 

"The world has never seen better soldiers than those who 
followed Lee ; and their leader will undoubtedly rank, without 
any exception, as the very greatest of all the great captains that 
the English speaking people have brought forth, and this, 
although the last and chief of his antagonists, may himself claim 
to stand as the full equal of Marlborough and Wellington." 

These opinions, both from Northern writers, clearly indicate 
the position the "Great Virginian" occupies and will ever occupy 
in history. 

"I have given a definition of a '^g re at injur" It is perhaps the 
most exacting to be found in the books ; it is my purpose to show, 
by reference to a few of many incidents in the career of General 
Lee, how he measures up to the highest standard and meets its 
every requirement. 

Resignation From The; Army. 

First. — He choose the right with the most invincible resolu- 
tion and resisted the sorest temptation from within and without. 

In the early spring of 1861, Colonel Robert E. Lee was called 
from Texas and assigned to duty in the city of Washington. 
Soon after his arrival, the storm, so long gathering, broke upon 
the country, and he was forced to choose between the Union and 
his Mother State — the alternative was most painful. Lee was 
not a secessionist, and while he recognized the right and duty to 
resist oppression, he did not think the then existing conditions 
justified a dissolution of the Union. He was a Union man from 
conviction, but he was a Virginian. 

Let us, for a moment, consider the moral conflict and the 
varied emotions which must, at this supreme moment, have agi- 



tated the mind of Colonel Lee. He had returned to Arlington, 
the home dear to him, around which clustered so many sacred 
memories ; standing on its pillared verandah and looking across 
the Potomac, he saw, on one side the capitol of his country, with 
the flag for which he had fought and under which he had gained 
imperishable fame, floating from its dome; on the other side 
were the fertile fields of Virginia, his Mother State, who had 
voted him a sword in recognition of distinguished services in the 
war with Mexico. 

General Lee was opposed to secession and loved the Union; 
he also realized, as few men did, that a terrible war would in- 
evitably follow the withdrawal of Virginia and the border States 
from the Union ; besides, he never believed in the ultimate suc- 
cess of the South, should such a war be inaugurated. To add to 
the embarrassment of the situation, President Lincoln tendered 
him, through Mr. Blair, command of the Federal Army ; he was 
to be made the successor of General Winfield Scott — the most 
tempting offer ever made to a soldier. What should he do? 
Ought he to decline the command tendered him and turn his back 
upon the flag and sever his association with General Scott, to 
whom he was so greatly attached? Ought he to lead an army 
of invasion to devastate the fields of Virginia and crimson her 
rivers with the blood of her best and bravest? Was he to draw 
the sword his mother gave against that mother's breast? This 
could not be, — the voice of duty was to him the voice of Qod ; 
conscience was above preference, and yielding to its dictates, he 
resigned his commission in the Federal Army, said farewell to 
his beloved commander, turned his back upon Arlington and all 
its sacred relics and associations and tendered his services to 
Virginia, determined never again to draw his sword, save in her 
defense. 

Gettysburg. 

Second. — He bore the heaviest burdens cheerfully. 

Perhaps the real magnanimity of General Lee's character was 
never more strikingly illustrated than by his action in assuming 
the responsibility for the disaster at Gettysburg. 

After Chancellorsville, perhaps, from a military standpoint, 
the greatest of all his victories; the one which added immensely 
to his reputation as a soldier, Lee, while giving the glory to God, 



with characteristic generosity, gave the credit to Jackson. So 
at Gettysburg, he said to the "sobbing" but heroic Pickett, when 
that general, who had led the world-famed charge, reported to 
him the destruction of his division: "Never mind, General, all 
this has been my fault ; it is I who have lost this fight, and you 
must help me out of it the best way you can." And this, although 
he knew the repulse of Pickett's division and the defeat of the 
army, was wholly due to the failure of a trusted lieutenant to 
obey his orders. 

Who may undertake to tell the feelings of General Lee, as 
from his position on the battle field he saw the men of Pickett's 
division, then performing a feat of heroism than which, quoting 
Charles Francis Adams, an eye-witness, "None in all recorded 
warfare was ever more persistent, more deadly, or more heroic" ; 
defeated, forced to retire, practically annihilated, and this after 
General Armistead and his brave fellows had broken the Federal 
lines, gone over the breast-works of Cemetery Hill and planted 
the Confederate flag in triumph on the captured guns. 

At this supreme moment who can doubt but that his thoughts 
turned to Jackson, and in the bitterness of his grief and disap- 
pointment he cried : "Oh, for one hour of Jackson now ; oh, for 
one hour of that strong right arm that never failed to strike and 
never struck in vain ; oh, for one hour of that steady loyalty that 
never questioned or hesitated, but always intelligently obeyed! 

Lee said to Professor White, after the close of the war : "Had 
I had Stonewall Jackson at Gettysburg, I would have won a 
great victory." 

Soon after the death of General Lee, a distinguished English- 
man, in an address on the "Great Virginian," referred to Lee's 
action in this connection with such rare beauty and eloquence, 
that I quote in full : 

"He honored the cause; he honored the sunburnt veterans 
orderly retreating; and he honored his own peerless humility 
when he bade them visit upon him the natural murmur and the 
sad fault. His soul was triumphant then. What a scene was 
that, my friends ! What a moment in a life ! What immortality 
for the painter who will bathe his brush in its inspiration and 
make it breathe on canvas! Such a spectacle was never seen 
before. 

"The world has manv battle-fields and history paints many 



a hero, and nations hold in deserved veneration their names, their 
character and their exploits. Deeds of daring, consummate gen- 
eralship, grand charges, wonderful endurance and a thousand 
noble eulogies enrich the historic page of all countries, But 
you will look in vain for so grand a climax in the character of 
any soldier, living or dead, as that to which I refer. Other gen- 
erals, other leaders, had failed, but they sought cause in a thous- 
and unforeseen contingencies. As though the brave needed an 
excuse for failure ! But not so with Robert E. Lee. He towered 
like a monument and spake like an archangel when, before his 
brave, disheartened, defeated army, he raised himself erect in the 
saddle and with his hat in his hand, his gray locks seeming to 
grow suddenly white with the glory of his honest soul, and his 
eyes moistened from the deep fountains of his heart, said, 'It was 
my fault, my brave comrades ; it was my fault'. 

"The great of history are known frequently and are trans- 
mitted down the generations by something which they said, as 
indicative of what they were, on the eve of or after great events. 
The gallant Nelson bequeathed to a nation, which will never 
cease to honor his memory, the burning words which thrilled all 
hearts on the eve of Trafalgar: 'England expects every man to 
do his duty.' And then yielded up his life as his answer to his 
country's call to duty. The Iron Duke of Waterloo will forever 
be associated with the deep anxiety which wrung from his soul 
the peril of the hour, when he said, 'Would to God, Blucher or 
night were come.' And the Prussian cannon thundered him a 
joyous answer from the wavering left. Napoleon will be re- 
membered for the words of despair that leaped from his heart 
in the last moments of a still thundering but lost battle, 'Do you 
tell me that my guards are turned ? Then all is lost' ; and, at that 
moment, greatness fled from the soul of this military Samson, 
and he became weak as other men. It was the confession of the 
failure of all his life. 'The Old Guard,' strewn dead upon the 
plain of Waterloo, carried with them the last hope that gilded 
the horizon of their great captain and his sun went down to rise 
no more, while it was yet day. 

"But how different is the case of our great hero. I ask you, 
my countrymen, for a word to characterize his confession, volun- 
tarily made to a defeated and retreating army, of which he was 
chief. There never was a moment when Csesar could have made 



it and lived. Much as the French Army loved the brave Na- 
poleon, the time never occurred, when, on making such a con- 
fession, he could defy instant death. 

"The nephew, Napoleon III., caused the defeat of his legions 
at Sedan, and fled to the victorious enemy for protection from 
his troops. 

"Behold the hero who can lose a battle and confess himself 
the cause to his own soldiers. Aye, and they cheer him with 
voices choked with tears for his peerless magnanimity. It re- 
quired greatness to make such a confession and nothing but 
transparent goodness would have dared so much. The tone, the 
words, the gesture, the sublime attitude — the whole man — was 
an inspiration. 

"And if Gettysburg sealed the physical fate of the Confed- 
eracy, it established and proved, not only the valor of the com- 
mon solidery, but the greatness of the captain, and of a cause 
which Providence deigned not to crown with success." 

The; Battle; of Spottsylvania. 

Third. — He is calmest in storms and most fearless under 
menace and frowns. 

On the morning of May 12th, 1864, the day of Spottsylvania, 
General Hancock, well called the "Superb," by a masterly move- 
ment, surprised the divisions of Generak?Edward Johnson and 
George H. Stuart. These officers and most of their command, 
were made prisoners, the salient captured and the Army of 
Northern Virginia cut in twain. Lee's line was broken, his army 
divided, and through the breach the soldiers of Hancock were 
rushing with all the wild fury of a mountain stream. General 
Lee, sitting upon "Traveler," realized at once the crisis, and rec- 
ognized that the fate of both the army and the cause hung in 
the uncertain balance of the almost lost battle. General John B. 
Gordon — your own loved Gordon — also saw and appreciated the 
danger, and while engaged in aligning his troops for a counter- 
charge, General Lee, spurring his horse, dashed to the front of 
his line, and standing, hat in hand, erect in his stirrups, looked 
first at the men, and then turning his horse's head to the front, 
was about to give the command, "Forward," when Gordon, for- 
getting for the moment the deference due his commander, said 
in a voice loud enough to be heard by his troops : "General Lee, 

10 



you shall not head my command — no man can do that ; I am here 
for that purpose. These men are Georgians and Virginians — 
they have never failed you, and they will not fail you now. Gen- 
eral Lee, go back to the rear." The answer came from those 
sturdy veterans like the mighty roar of a cataract: "No, no, we 
will not fail you ; Lee to the rear." After forcing horse and rider 
back, General Gordon gave the command, "Charge!" and putting 
spurs to his horse, hat in hand, his sword flashing in the sunlight, 
he led those Georgians and Virginians, while they, with a wild 
enthusiasm, inspired with a conscious knowledge that the eyes 
of their beloved commander were upon them, moved forward 
with a fury that nothing but the power of the Lord God Om- 
nipotent could have stayed or withstood. The lost ground was 
recovered, the broken line reformed, and "tte victory wrested 
from the very jaws of defeat. It was Gordon at Spottsylvania. 
with his Georgians and Virginians, who saved the Army :of 
Northern Virginia from destruction and postponed, for a time, 
the final catastrophe. He did more, he saved the life then most 
precious in all the South, for had Lee fallen there was none to 
take his place. 

Appomattox — The Surrender. 

Fourth. — His reliance on truth, on virtue, on God, was most 
unfaltering. 

In an hour of deep depression. General Lee said : "Human 
virtue should be equal to human calamity," and by his conduct 
and bearing at this time illustrated the truth of the statement. 

At Appomattox he realized the end had come. There was 
nothing left but to accept the situation and surrender his army. 
It was suggested that the army disband, the men take to the 
mountains and carry on a guerilla warfare. To this he would 
not consent ; his reply was characteristic of the man. He said : 
"No, that will not do ; it must be remembered that we are Christ- 
ian people ; we have fought this fight as well and as long as we 
know how — we have been defeated. For us as a Christian people 
there is but one course to pursue — we must accept the situation. 
These men must go home and plant a crop and we must proceed 
to build up our country on a new basis." 

Only a short time before he had said to one of his staff : "I 
would rather die a thousand deaths than surrender this army." 



11 



When asked by a weeping- officer, "Oh, General, what will 
history say of the surrender of this army in the field?" he at 
once replied : "That is not the question ; the question is, Is it 
right? If it is right, I will take the responsibility." 

How keenly he suffered is illustrated by a remark overhead 
immediately before his interview with General Grant : "I have 
only to ride along the line and all will be over, but it is our duty 
to live ; for what will become of the women and children of the 
South, if we are not here to protect them?" His meeting with 
General Grant, the magnanimity of the victor and the calm self- 
poised dignity of the vanquished are a part of history. The 
whole object of General Grant, as was said by a Confederate 
officer present, "seemed to be to mitigate as far as lay in his 
power the bitterness of defeat" ; while the demeanor of General 
Lee, as described by a Federal officer present, "was that of a 
thoroughly self-possessed gentleman, who had a very disagree- 
able duty to perform, but was determined to get through with it 
as well and as soon as he could." The negotiations ended, Gen- 
eral Lee retired, the Federal officers present standing uncovered. 
Mounting his horse, he returned to his army, the Federal officers 
saluting and the Federal soldiers presenting arms, as he passed. 
This was the tribute of the American soldier to American valor. 
On reaching his lines he was cheered by his men, but when he 
told them of his surrender, and said, "Soldiers, we have fought 
through the war together — I have done the best for you I could," 
many of the veterans wept, and he, overcome by their grief, ex- 
claimed, "I could wish I were numbered with the slain of the 
iast battle," but recovering himself, added, "We must live for our 
afflicted country." 

Here the military career of Robert E. Lee ended forever. 
He returned to his home in Richmond, shunning publicity, de- 
termined to devote his best efforts to bringing about a thorough 
and complete reconciliation between the sections. He believed 
that it was a part of wisdom for his people to acquiesce in the 
result of the war, and of candor to recognize the fact. He re- 
garded the proper education of the youth of the South as a most 
important means to that end. At this time, he wrote: "I con- 
sider the proper education of the Southern youth as one of the 
most important objects to be attained, and the one from which 
the greatest benefit may be expected. Nothing will compensate 

12 



us for a depression of the standard of our morals and intellectual 
culture. Each State should take energetic measures to revive 
the schools and colleges." That he might aid in this great work, 
he declined all offers of positions and the large salaries attached 
thereto. He would not allow his name and influence to be used 
to aid, advertise or promote any business or enterprise. In de- 
clining an offer of position, which, from a pecuniary standpoint, 
was most tempting, he said : "I am grateful, but I have a self- 
imposed task which I must accomplish. I have led the young 
men of the South in battle ; I have seen many of them die on the 
field ; I shall devote my remaining energies in training young 
men to do their duty in life." In order more effectually to ac- 
complish the great and beneficent work to which he had conse- 
crated his remaining years, he accepted the Presidency of Wash- 
ington College, at Lexington, Virginia, and there he taught both 
by precept and example, not only the youths, but the young men 
and veterans, and the mothers and daughters of the late Confed- 
eracy, the duties and obligations resting upon them. 

In this labor of love he continued until the final summons. 
In the early morning of October 12th, 1870, the "Great Virgin- 
ian" gave his last order, — "Let the tent be struck." Then, his 
work done, the great mission of his life accomplished, he passed 
over the "river" and with Jackson, rested in the shade of the treei. 

In addition to meeting all the requirements of "True Great- 
ness," as quoted, General Lee had that which Daniel Webster 
held to be the essential element of real greatness : "A solemn 
and religious regard for spiritual and eternal things." General 
Lee^vvas deeply and sincerely, but unostentatiously, pious ; he 
was 'a child of duty, and this was the true secret of his greatness. 
He had, in early life, achieved the greatest of all victories — the 
conquest of self — and ever afterwards subordinated every action 
and aspiration to the voice of conscience, which was to him the in- 
terpretation and the expression of the will of God. In peace and in 
war, from the beginning to the end, "everywhere and through 
all, he was never known to display an un-Christian passion or to 
let fall from his lips an ungenerous word." 

The cause for which General Lee fought is often referred to 
as "The Lost Cause." This, I submit, is inaccurate. The cause 



13 



was not wholly lost ; the great principles for which General Lee, 
and those following him, contended, were right, and — 

"Eternal right, though all else fail, 
Can never be made wrong." 

The Confederate cause, in so far as it contemplated and 
looked to the establishment of a separate and independent re- 
public — "The Confederate States of America" — failed, but the 
great principles, the sovereignty and equality of the States and 
the right of local self-government, which were denied or threat- 
ened by the dominant party in 1861, were fully vindicated. 

On the organization of the Federal Government, under the 
constitution, President Washington, in tendering Mr. John Jay 
the appointment of Chief Justice, referred to the judicial as XH' .'■ 
"Department which must be considered as the keystone of our 
political fabric," and to the Associate Justices, he wrote, "The 
judicial system is the chief pillar upon which our national gov- 
ernment must rest." 

Washington, Hamilton and their co-patriots, warmly favored 
conferring upon the Supreme Court jurisdiction in all cases of 
law and equity arising under the constitution of the United 
States. To this Mr. Jefferson was bitterly opposed. He said : 
"The judges are, in fact, the corps of sappers and miners, work- 
ing underground to undermine the foundation of the Confederate 
fabric." 

The views of Washington prevailed. Had it been otherwise 
the Southern States and their people, at the close of the Civil 
War, would have been absolutely at the mercy of the vindictive 
and merciless majority in the Federal Congress. 

Had Mr. Jefferson's views been adopted, the Supreme Court 
of the United States could not have considered or passed upon 
the constitutionality of the "Force Bill," the "Civil Rights Bill," 
and other kindred measures of wrong and oppression. 

These acts would therefore have become the law of the land, 
with a result to the South and its people too horrible to contem- 
plate. The theory of "State suicide," urged by the radicals, would 
have prevailed, the autonomy of the Southern States would have 
been destroyed and the hell-inspired and devil-conducted orgies 
of the reconstruction period continued. 



14 



It was the Federal Courts that saved to the Southern States 
their government, and to the people of the South their property 
and their civilization. 

The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in 
all questions growing out of the Civil War and the the legislation 
of Congress in the matters of reconstruction, demonstrate the 
wisdom of Washington. This august tribunal has. indeed, been 
the "keystone of our political fabric," and "the chief pillar upon 
which the national government has rested." These decisions, 
from the protest of Chief Justice Taney, penned with almost 
dying hand in 1861, against the illegal suspension of the writ of 
habeas corpus, down to and including the recent decision in Giles 
versus Harris, sustaining the constitution of Alabama, have been 
wholly consistent in holding that the States are sovereign, and in 
declaring that "the constitution in all its provisions looks to an 
indissoluble union composed of indestructible States, and that 
; -'; perpetuity and indissolubility of the Union by no means implies 
'the loss of distinct and individual existence or the right of self- 
government by the States." 

So sweeping have been the decisions of this high court and so» 
steadfast has been its adherence to the great principles of the 
Constitution, that Senator Hoar, at the time of his lamented 
death the ablest member of the United States Senate, in an ad- 
dress before the Virginia State Bar Association, said : 

"I have spoken in behalf of a tribunal whose constitutional 
judgments upon the greatest questions with which it has ever 
had to deal, have overthrown, baffled and brought to naught the 
policy, in regard to the great matter of reconstruction, of the 
party to which I myself belong, and the school of politics in 
which I have been trained and which, I suppose, was also that 
of a majority of the American people." 

These decisions, while denying the right of a State to secede 
from the Union, and declaring it perpetual, also hold that the 
South was right in insisting that the States under the consti- 
tution, were sovereign and co-equal. 

To conclude : 

Mrs. Margaret Preston, in her poem, "Yes, Let the Tent Be 
Struck," written on the death of General Lee, beautifully ex- 
presses in one of the verses, what I have tried to say : 

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"We will not weep — we dare not. Such a story 
As his grand life writes on the centuries' years 

Should crowa. our bosoms with a flush of glory, 
That manhood's type — supremest that appears — 

Our South has shown the ages." 

My countrymen, "Virginia gave us this imperial man." Born 
and reared, as we have seen, upon her soil, his body rests in her 
beautiful valley, her green sod covers and her eternal mountains 
sentinel his grave. What was mortal, we claim ; but the genius, 
the soul, the immortal parts of this mighty man, these belong to 
no State nor section, but to our reunited country ; to our common 
civilization and to God. The character and fame of Robert E. 
Lee are the priceless heritage of the Anglo-Saxon people. 



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